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You might have noticed that Facebook Insights have changed. So, what’s the big deal; what’s new? There’s a lot of new metrics and ways Facebook is showing you what your audience is doing online. This post provides an overview of what they mean and how to interpret them.
First of all, switching to the new Facebook insights is not a sweaty palms decision. If you don’t like what you see, for now, you can still just switch back to the way things were. But be advised, if you do try it and switch back, you can’t go back to the new way again until it’s rolled out across the board.
But (spoiler alert) the new insights are awesome!
The new Facebook insights come in four categories: Overview, Page, Posts, and People. Essentially, this allows you to view stats overall, specifically for your whole page or individual posts, and insights about your fans and other Facebook users.
There’s a lot to talk about, but I’d like to draw your attention to the “Posts” section of the insights.
Facebook Posts
This section of insights gives you tons of metrics about, you guessed it, your posts. It’s broken down into three sections, an overview of all your posts, when your fans are online and the best post types.
All Posts
Here’s something you had before, but now it looks better, is easier to read and has replaced the “virility” metric with real numbers on how many people are liking, commenting on and sharing your post. To me, this makes more sense. I’ll be honest, I never did really like that “virility” metric.
You’ll see some arrow buttons signifying a drop down menu. The drop down menu under “Reach” allow you to toggle between paid reach and organic reach. The menu under “Engagement” allows you to see if posts were marked as spam or hidden. These added metrics will help you understand which posts are helping or hurting your overall reach.
When Your Fans are Online
You’re going to want to pay attention to this tab. Wondering when the best day and time to post is for your fans? It’s all here. You will know how many fans saw your posts on specific days of the week and what time of day most of your posts are seen. This information gives you great insight on when your fans are on Facebook, and it’s also really easy to see which days and times work best for your fans. The new insights takes it even a step farther to show how your fans compare to all Facebook users.
Best Post Types
I’ve saved the best for last. This might be my favorite new feature of Facebook Insights (and the others are pretty good too, right?).
Under the “Best Post Type” tab you’ll see a neat, easy-to-read breakdown of what type of posts (status updates, photos, links, videos) get the best reach and best engagement. The results will make it clear to you what type of content your fans are seeing and what they are engaging with. You will know that although your status updates have a larger reach, more people engage with your photos.
Overall, the new Facebook insights mean more information and focus on who your fans are and what type of content they’re interested in. You’re getting more numbers that tell a better story to help you understand what’s working for you. I’ve only covered a few of the exiting new updates here, there are many more. If you’ve been prompted to try the new insights, I say, go for it; there is nothing to lose and only more insight to be gained.
How will you use the new Facebook insights to increase your message online and provide your audience with the content they’re looking for?
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